Updated: WoW: Cataclysm Changes Being Rolled Out

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Gushing wounds and smoke bombs? Sounds like my kind of party.

By IGN Staff

UPDATE: The mage and druid changes were posted on Friday evening. Here is a summary for your brainhole!

Druids seemed fairly nonplussed with what they'll be getting – an area-of-effect bleed attack for their feral forms, a very temporary group speed-buff and… magical invisible exploding mushrooms – though the mechanic known as Eclipse is being reworked to make balance druids cycle through their spells to maximize their damage (as opposed to spamming Moonfire). Wild Mushroom, the crazy invisible mushroom ability, sounds as though it will work in a similar fashion to hunter traps, exploding when enemies get too close. Not confirmed is whether players affected by the mushroom will begin tripping balls. Blizzard also basically said that, overall, they want the druid forms to each fill their own niche, so expect some utility change.

The biggest surprise so far has been the proposed mage changes, which don't suck. Despite all the "new icon" jokes, mages are getting two legitimately awesome-sounding spells. Flame Orb, an ability that originated from one of the game's bosses, flies in a straight line zapping everything in its path. The general consensus of Flame Orb amongst the community has been "oh hell yes." Meanwhile, Wall of Fog, where the mage creates a giant, frosty wall that stretches thirty yards to snare and damage enemies, has been less positive, although to us that ability sounds awesome. Mages are also gaining Time Warp, an ability that, as best we can tell, will work very similarly to the shaman's Bloodlust. Naturally, this is a slap in the face to all shamans, because with Bloodlust no longer totally unique, they are little more than super useful buff/heal/debuffing/PvP machines.

Over the last couple days Blizzard has been rolling out information on the changes, upgrades and additions being made to the ten classes in World of Warcraft, in preparation for the upcoming expansion, Cataclysm. Prior to now, Blizzard has discussed the new "mastery" system and the sweeping stat-changes being made to gear, but has been tight-lipped about the specifics of class changes. So far, seven of the ten classes have been covered, with the mage and druid class changes to be released later today, and the paladin class coming on April 16th. If you don't play, you're probably not going to get half of what you're about to read. Even so, just a few of the highlights for the classes so far include:

Shamans will be getting an area-of-effect heal spell, and an ability that allows shaman to spellcast while moving. Being able to cast while moving is so far unheard-of in WoW, and will no doubt be an ability that is utilized in many movement-heavy encounters. It also would have made the Razorgore encounter (from Blackwing Lair) a total piece of cake.

Warlocks no longer have to spend like an hour farming Soul Shards for raids, because the Soul Shard system is being totally revamped. Soul Shards will now be more akin to the death knight's runes, except they won't regenerate during combat, and they'll only get three. They'll basically turn a warlock's abilities into something way more awesome when used. Also, despite a post on the mage forums saying that the exact opposite is intended, warlocks have received abilities to make them more mage-like, such as Dark Intent, which is basically Focus Magic, but for periodic damage (DoTs). Woo?

Priests get an ability called Leap of Faith, which functions as a friendly version of the death knight's Death Grip. Rather than pull an enemy towards them, priests can pull an ally out of a bad situation. We are predicting unbeatable all-priest Warsong Gulch teams, and possibly priest-versus-death knight people-tennis.

Warriors are getting an ability called Gushing Wound which applies a bleed-effect that stacks and refreshes every time the enemy moves. Whether you run away or give chase, moving while your wound is gushing is going to be a bad idea. Expect tanks in Cataclysm to constantly wander in circles during boss-fights.

Goblins - soon to be playable!

Death knights, possibly upset at having some of their unique aspects being totally ripped-off are content to gain an ability that will totally rip off any spell being cast at them. Called Dark Simulacrum, the ability will cause any spell cast from the target to be copied by the death knight, who can then use it once. Unlike the warrior's Spell Reflect, death knights will still be affected by the original spell. It's also unclear whether the copied spell copies any extra damage effects, or whether the spell critically hit or not. Death knights are also getting their rune-system reworked, and as a result, loads of their abilities are being adjusted.

Blizzard is taking a page from The Book of FPS as rogues are gaining an ability called Smoke Bomb. While a Smoke Bomb is in effect, anyone within the smoke cloud can't be targeted by ranged attacks, which serves as an interesting spin on the line-of-sight rules that ranged attacks are typically susceptible to. For now, most forum posts are lukewarm about Smoke Bomb. If nothing else, an auction house full of smoke is certain to be a regular sight.

And if hunters needed anything else to completely dominate ranged attackers, they got it. Twice. First up is the Trap Launcher ability, which allows hunters to place traps at range. Then there's Camouflage, which makes hunters untargetable by ranged attacks while still allowing the hunter to move and lay traps, and even gives the hunter a boost to the first attack from being camouflaged.

Still to come are the mage, druid and paladin details, and we'll update this story as the changes roll in.